


the mystery valentine that wasn’t a mystery

by smilesprout



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, i wanted to write a markhyuck valentine au and yes i know valentines day is long gone, rated T for the teeny tiny bit of swearing expected from highschoolers, the dreamies appear for like five seconds, the dreamies are all in a school dance club, the valentine's day markhyuck au no one asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 02:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18326420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilesprout/pseuds/smilesprout
Summary: mark dreads valentine's day; he’s already made five girls cry, and the amount of chocolates he’s consuming probably isn’t healthy. but this valentine's day, he finds a gift in his bag that makes him think otherwise.





	the mystery valentine that wasn’t a mystery

**Author's Note:**

> hi i started writing this on valentine's day and never finished it but i really wanted to finish it and post it anyways even though it's way past valentine's day... anyways hope you enjoy
> 
> as usual, my proofreading is questionable and i only proofread this once, so i apologise in advance for typos/errors

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

 

It started off with the obligation chocolates from two of his female classmates back in junior high. He figured it was their mothers who had bought big packages of cheap chocolates for a good deal and told their daughters to pass them out to all the boys in their class. That was fine. Until Mark started receiving Valentine chocolates that weren’t obligation chocolates. That’s when the problem began.

The problem doesn’t extend much further than his lack of interest in girls, really.

Mark appreciates the chocolates he receives, he truly does. After all, chocolates were on the list of his favourite foods. But after a certain few years of receiving chocolates from girls and happily eating all of them, he’s started to feel the dread of having to reject people. And it wasn’t just one person he had to reject—there was always more.

He never really understood the reason behind his popularity. Even more so because it wasn’t that he was popular all year long, he was just popular on Valentine's Day.

Maybe he looked _easy to date_ , as Donghyuck put it, whatever that meant.

When he receives the second chocolates of the day, he feels the dread washing over him. Because this one comes with a confession.

“I don’t think you’ll accept my feelings, but I hope you’ll accept this anyways,” she shoves the heart-shaped box of chocolates into the air between them, “and remember me.”

It isn't a confession full of hope, or anything like _will you please date me?_ , but it's equally as pressuring, and equally as hard to reject. The result would be the same anyways—full of disappointment.

He smiles sheepishly and the girl takes this as her sign to hurriedly scramble away.

Mark has a fleeting wish that he’d stayed home today.

…

By lunch, Mark has respectfully rejected a handful of girls, even making five of them cry. He wants to disappear from this hellhole of a school because right now, he’s feeling like the shittiest person on planet earth.

Mark even welcomes Donghyuck’s obnoxiously loud shout of his name and suffocating hug with a small smile.

When Donghyuck lets go of his overly-tight embrace, he scans Mark’s face. “You okay?”

“Yes, I’m great.” Mark mumbles and loosely grips Donghyuck’s wrist to lead him to anywhere that isn’t the school corridor. He doesn’t need the extra attention.

“But you just accepted my hug without pushing me off,” Donghyuck says thoughtfully. “And you didn’t even cuss me out.”

Mark lets out an audible sigh. “I’m fine.”

“Something’s definitely up. Your face looks uglier than usual!”

“I’m going to strangle you with my jacket if you don’t shut up.”

Donghyuck does shut up, which Mark knows is only because, despite Donghyuck’s apparent disinterest in Mark’s problems, he does know when Mark really isn’t feeling the best.

The most part of lunch break goes by peacefully—well, as peacefully as a lunch with Donghyuck can go. Donghyuck blabbers about something that Mark quickly loses interest in, but he does manage to get a few laughs out of Mark here and there.

But Mark is apparently an idiot for thinking he could make it through the lunch break peacefully because now there are two girls that he has never even spoken to before standing in front of them. One of them looks a little flustered, and he’s sure it’s going to be another—

“Sooyoung has something to say to you,” One of the girls pushes her friend forward and eyes Donghyuck. “Privately.”

Donghyuck’s eyes widen comically at the box of chocolates in the girl’s hands. “Oh, is it Valentine's Day today?”

“Yes, Donghyuck. You don’t even know what day of the week it is, do you?” Mark replies monotonously.

“No wonder you were looking like an ugly grump today, it’s the confessions, isn’t it?”

“Remember the thing I said about your neck and my jacket? It’s starting to become less of an empty threat.”

Donghyuck laughs loudly. “Go talk to her.”

Mark wishes Donghyuck would have stayed and shooed the girls away with some witty remark, but he leaves in a flash with a less-than-subtle wink at Mark. It’s only funny because Donghyuck can’t even wink properly.

…

As Mark is hearing Sooyoung’s confession, he realises two things: that she doesn’t seem flustered at all, and that she objectively looks very attractive.

Mark figures that she’s a different kind of attractive from himself. To be frank, there’s no doubt that she’s very pretty. Mark has heard from more than one person that he was pretty, but he’s also heard that he had a cute kind of charm. He’s heard more than once from his dance club members that he was cute. But the girl in front of him now radiated a more mature atmosphere.

It should be an honour, really, to have someone this attractive confess to him, if not for the fact that he doesn’t care much for pretty faces.

He also doesn’t care much for female faces, as no one but himself seems to know. He considers shouting this fact from the school’s rooftop, but he figures even Donghyuck wouldn’t go for that level of dramatic, and decides to start with just a few people instead: his dance club members.

It’s clear by the end of her confession that it’s not sincere, and she proves this when Mark respectfully rejects her.

“Figured you weren’t into girls!” she smiles subtly. “But I thought I’d try anyway. You are quite cute.”

Mark visibly freezes. _How does she know? Was I that obvious?_ Mark was sure seconds ago, that this fact was only known by one person, and that one person was himself.

Not a lot of people know much about Mark, other than the fact that he gets good grades and that he leads the dance club. Only his club knows more than the obvious—that he has a profound obsession for watermelons, that he sleep talks, that he gets uncomfortable on planes.

They were all stopped at the _I’d like to get to know you better, Mark_ after his rejection.

So it’s strange to Mark, that Sooyoung—someone he’d never talked to before today—already knew a piece more than everyone else, something even his team didn’t know.

“Since you’re the only gay person I know of, really,” She continues, ignoring Mark’s lack of response. “Do you happen to about Jiwoo? From your dance club, if she’s into girls?”

The only thing Mark knows Jiwoo likes is macaroons. But even if he did know, his reply would be the same.

“You could ask her yourself,” he replies monotonously.

She frowns slightly but quickly replaces it with a smile. “Oh, and don’t worry. I’ll keep your secret if you keep mine.”

…

Mark feels the invisible weight lift off his shoulders when he enters the club room and is greeted with bright smiles. He considers sharing a good deal of his chocolates—it would take a while for him to finish all of it himself anyway.

He notices Donghyuck’s absence from the room’s lack of rowdiness. There’s still the presence of loudness in the room to some degree, but most of the team is stretching and stirring up casual conversation that mostly consisted of complaints.

“I have something to announce.” Mark raises his voice, loud enough that it would reach even Chenle and Jisung, the bickering duo at the back of the room.

His teammates look at him. Their expressions morph into ones of confusion after they see that he isn’t about to make a joke. Jaemin gives him a reassuring smile, and Mark thinks he might as well just go for it.

“So, I’m gay.” he lets out the breath he'd been holding. “Also, I have too many chocolates, and they’re going to melt before I get to eat them all so please, help yourselves to some.”

Chenle leaps for the pile of chocolates first, grabbing as many boxes and bags as his arms can manage, probably crushing about half of the chocolates in his arms.

“You’re so greedy, bighead!” Jisung pries a few bags out of Chenle’s arms, Renjun following his actions after only managing to retrieve one box of chocolates.

Mark doesn’t know if this is the reaction he was expecting, but he figures he doesn’t mind it.

“Save this for Jiwoo.” Jeno shoves a box of macaroons at Mark. “She’s the only one here that are obsessed with these. Oh, and do you wanna talk about your, uh, _homosexuality_?”

“Or was that just so we would stop nagging at you to get a girlfriend?” Chenle chimes in with chocolate in his mouth.

“He’s just been so obsessed with his books, we thought he’d never get into a relationship at this point.”

“We’ll keep it to ourselves, by the way,” Jaemin says.

“Unless you want us to announce it to the school so you’ll stop getting chocolates. But I think it’s a good thing you get so many since you can share it with us.” Jisung comments.

“You insensitive little shit, it’s not a good thing he has to reject a bunch of girls!”

Mark laughs fondly and shakes his head. “Yeah, I’d appreciate if you wouldn’t announce it to the whole school.”

“How about Donghyuck? You telling him?” Renjun’s words are muffled by his chewing, but Mark manages to figure it out.

Mark pauses for a second. “Yeah, I’ll tell him.”

He thinks about how he has somehow managed to tell everyone but the one person he’s the closest to. It’s just that this was the moment he decided to go for it and… Donghyuck hadn’t been there. He’d tell him, of course. He just doesn’t know how.

…

“She screamed at me for cutting in front of her!” Donghyuck exclaims enthusiastically, throwing his hands up in the air.

“Because you cut the line.” Mark deadpans.

“Yes,” Donghyuck grumbles, “But for a good reason.”

“And what was that _amazing_ reason?”

“Gummy bears.”

Mark slaps his forehead.

They continue walking back home together. Nothing is out of the ordinary: Donghyuck is loud as usual, Mark half-listens to Donghyuck’s stories, and their elbows bump against each other once in a while.

“You know,” Donghyuck says, “I was wondering why you had such an ugly expression today,”

Mark is a second away from slapping Donghyuck’s arm when he continues:

“And I realised that I forgot it was Valentine's Day.” Donghyuck finishes with a smug smile on his face. “How many girls did you have to reject?”

“I don’t know.” Mark sighs audibly. “Too many.”

“I still don’t get why girls like you so much when you look like a noodle and have a face as ugly as that.” Donghyuck marvels aloud.

And while Mark swats at him, which emits a dramatic _ouch_ from Donghyuck, he weirdly appreciates the insult. He should be offended, or at least a little hurt, but after hearing the umpteenth confession about how perfect he is, it’s refreshing to hear someone telling him he’s ugly.

…

Mark only notices the plastic bag in his bag after he reaches home.

It’s strange, mostly because he never remembers putting it there. And it can’t possibly be a Valentine's Day gift—no one could’ve secretly placed a plastic bag in his bag without him noticing.

_And who gives Valentine's Day chocolates in flimsy plastic bags anyways?_

All of Mark’s doubts are countered when he peers into the plastic bag and finds a box of chocolates. But that’s not what surprises him the most. It’s the second item he finds in the plastic bag: a bottle of ketchup.

Mark absolutely hates ketchup.

He searches the bag more only to find nothing else—no note or clue as to who could’ve placed this in his bag.

The only girl that had access to his bag the entire day was Jiwoo, but she’d already given everyone on the team obligation chocolates earlier. Well, she’d given Mark banana milk and a few cookies instead, with a claim that he probably had too many chocolates. And even that gift, with no strings attached whatsoever, was decently packaged decently—at least better than a plastic bag.

With Jiwoo not being an option, there isn’t anyone that can possibly have access to their dance studio. There’s always his teammates, but he gets the feeling none of them would secretly sneak a box of chocolates in his bag. And none of them had access to his bag for the whole day anyway.

Well, except for Donghyuck. He definitely had a chance to sneak something in Mark’s bag, but there’s no way the attention seeker would give anyone a gift without making a big show out of it.

_Look, aren’t I the best friend in the world, I gave Mark chocolates and—_

Ketchup.

It clicks in his head. There’s only one person other than his parents that knows he hates ketchup. There’s only one person that would wrap a Valentine's Day gift in a plastic bag with his favourite brand of chocolates and his least favourite food.

The question that lingers in Mark’s mind is: _why?_

…

Mark and Donghyuck are childhood best friends, there’s no question in that. And when Mark thought of the genius idea to join the dance club, Donghyuck naturally followed. They ended up sticking with it for longer than either of them had ever imagined, and long enough for Mark to see that Donghyuck genuinely enjoyed dancing. In fact, he doesn’t think Donghyuck likes anything more than dancing (with the exception of his favourite hobby called _making fun of Mark Lee_ ).

And after a day of troubling thoughts on the crisis of his childhood best friend’s possible homosexualness, Mark only comes to one conclusion:

Donghyuck likes dancing more than he likes girls.

Mark knows Donghyuck, and he knows almost every little bit of Donghyuck that makes him Donghyuck. He knows his sleeping habits, his favourite foods, the video games he plays at three in the morning because he’ll refuse to sleep until he beats that level.

But Mark is starting to wonder if he doesn’t know Donghyuck. If he doesn’t know the loud kid that clings to him like a koala and insults him whenever he gets the chance. Because according to Mark’s vast knowledge (and assumption) on him, Lee Donghyuck likes girls.

Not that he’s ever had a girlfriend.

There is no way he’d gift chocolates to a guy without it being a joke. And even if he did do it non-jokingly, he’d never do it so anonymously with no strings attached whatsoever.

Yet, that’s exactly what he’d done.

…

“Mark, I don’t know how, but you look even uglier than yesterday.”

This is the first thing Donghyuck says to Mark the next morning when they’re stretching before dance practice.

Mark unenthusiastically swipes at Donghyuck with a sigh. His hit almost has no power.

“Mark… are you sick?” Donghyuck gasps dramatically. “Your under-eye bags. They’re _horrendous._ ”

“I always have under-eye bags, Donghyuck.” Mark clicks his tongue.

“No, these dark circles are serious. You look super sleep deprived, and you’re kinda… wobbly.”

Mark pauses and stands up straight to prove Donghyuck wrong, until he trips. Over nothing. Luckily, Donghyuck catches his arm before he meets the floor.

“You just proved my point.”

“Shut up,” Mark says with the most bite he can muster.

Donghyuck shakes his head with a smirk. “And I hope your thing yesterday with Sooyoung went well.”

“Oh,” Mark tries to emit the most nonchalant tone. “There’s a high chance I’ll not speak to her ever again.”

Donghyuck’s eyes widen noticeably. “You turned her down?!”

“Yes,” Mark says. “I don’t know her, and I don’t like girls.”

There. Mark said it. Now the two can just continue their lives in peace—

There’s a shout, and Donghyuck, who had been in an awkward stretching position, crashes into the ground.

…

Mark yelps, which successfully turns the heads of everyone in the room. Renjun lets out a sound somewhere between a gasp and a scream as he hastily runs across the room. Jeno kneels down next to Donghyuck, soon followed by the rest of the team. Jisung starts a manifesto of nervous thoughts and is shut up by the elbow to his side. Chenle squawks loudly and received a smack from Jaemin.

Mark shakes his head and kneels down beside Donghyuck’s head.

“Hey, Donghyuck,” Mark gently taps Donghyuck’s shoulder. “You okay?”

After an uncomfortable few seconds of silence, Donghyuck stirs. There’s a collective sigh of relief as soon as Donghyuck’s eyes flutter open.

“Mark?” Donghyuck turns his head in an attempt to see Mark’s face, only to flinch in pain.

“Don’t move your head,” Jaemin says sternly.

“Is it a concussion? Does he have a concussion?” Chenle screams worriedly.

Donghyuck huffs and gets up with a small wince. “No, I’m fine.”

Mark attempts to get Donghyuck to get back down in a lying position, but Donghyuck grabs Mark’s arm to stop him. Mark gently wrestles him anyways and successfully manages to place Donghyuck’s head in his lap.

It’s at this moment when the sunlight pierces right through the tiny window in the room, illuminating Donghyuck’s face. His brown hair glows, and his eyes are shining brighter than the sun itself. Mark can faintly hear a live performance of _Careless Whisper_ playing in the dance studio.

Or maybe Mark is being delusional because it makes absolutely no sense that he thinks of Donghyuck romantically, and it’s even more ridiculous that this is how he realises it. He has other things to worry about, namely the situation of Donghyuck possibly having a concussion and— _oh my god his head in on my lap and he’s looking at me and he’s so cute._

Romance always seemed off the table for Mark. Being gay in high school already limited his dating chances, and he doesn’t have time for a relationship anyway.

But a single moment like this makes him question all his rules.

 

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

 

Mark wakes up ten minutes earlier than usual on White Day.

Donghyuck’s concussion had become a long-gone event, and everything was back to default. Well, everything except one small thing.

Mark’s feelings.

Despite the seemingly popular belief that he was the _most infuriatingly dense person ever_ , according to Donghyuck, Mark feels the least bit of pride in himself finding out his feelings. He wants nothing more than to rub his new found feelings in Donghyuck’s judgmental little face.

The problem is, those feelings are for the said person. So clearly, that’s out of the question. And now Mark is at a loss because he’d spent the past month thinking over the possibility of giving Donghyuck a return gift for White Day, while simultaneously battling the tiny voice in his head that said _what if he doesn’t actually like you back?_

Mark knows that’s the dense part of his brain speaking because he’s pretty sure the secret gift from Valentine's Day was Donghyuck’s subtle and amusing way of confessing. So after a month of fighting with the multiple voices in his head, he’s reached the conclusion that Donghyuck _does_ like him back.

And even if he doesn’t, he knows the awkwardness of his confession won’t damage their friendship too much. He’d just have to swallow his pride for a few humiliating months and pretend nothing happened.

But despite the considerably long period of time Mark had to think through his thoughts, he still debates whether he really has the nerve to confess.

He’s being a _loser chicken_ , according to Donghyuck (once again), considering he isn’t even saying anything. He’s just secretly giving Donghyuck a thoughtful gift. On a day exactly a month after Valentine's Day made for the receiver of the Valentine chocolates to give back sweets as a return gift, namely White Day. _Yeah, it isn’t nerve-racking at all._

Mark is sure his entire body is metaphorically drenched in nervous sweat when he slips his return gift into Donghyuck’s bag. He’s surprised he even managed to do it secretly, being the _obvious shit_ (for the third time, a term Donghyuck enjoyed calling Mark) he was. He realises Donghyuck calls him a lot of things. Not like Mark ever cared—they were usually mean (Donghyuck liked being mean to Mark) but accurate remarks anyway (Mark could never deny them).

And with Mark’s new found feelings for Donghyuck, he isn’t going to comment on anything. He also isn’t going to risk facing Donghyuck today. Not when he’s extremely unprepared with how to explain his White Day gift that is clearly not platonic, not when he’s a nervous wreck from just the thought of that interaction. He’s definitely not going to walk home with Donghyuck today.

Clearly, fate has other plans for him.

“Mark!”

The voice is too familiar for Mark’s liking.

“ _Lee Canada Mark_ , stop right there!” The voice screams again at an ear-piercing volume.

Mark doesn’t stop. Instead, he picks up his pace and walks the fastest he’s ever walked in his life.

“Oh my god, what part of _stop_ do you not understand, you dense _beefhead_!”

The only thought that runs through Mark’s head is _shit I’m gonna get caught_ before Donghyuck grabs Mark’s wrist from behind and successfully stops his fast-walking.

Mark turns around to meet a panting Donghyuck, hair stuck to his sweaty forehead, and backpack hanging halfway down his arms. The most entertaining part of the scenery, however, is not Donghyuck’s comedically exasperated expression, but the familiar plastic bag in his outstretched hand.

“Seriously, Mark?” Donghyuck huffs. “A bottle of _mustard_ as my White Day gift?”

“You forgot the huge bags of candy I also gave you,” Mark responds immediately with the most level-headed voice he can manage. “And for the record, you gave me a bottle of _ketchup_ for Valentine's Day.”

“So you _did_ know it was me.” Donghyuck mumbles with a pout that Mark will never admit out loud is adorable. “I was sure your dense muscle-head brain would never figure it out.”

“Who else would give me a bottle of my least favourite condiment for Valentine's Day?” Mark scoffs, exaggeratedly rolling his eyes. “How did you even know I hated ketchup?”

“You dumped all the ketchup packs from McDonald's onto Jiwoo’s tray when we went out to eat as a group.” He takes one look at Mark’s dumbfounded face, sighs, and continues. “At first I thought you were just being nice to her because she ran out of ketchup. And I wondered if you had a crush on her—which would’ve been sad because she likes girls—but I knew that wasn’t the case. So I concluded that you must hate ketchup.”

 _So Jiwoo likes girls._ Mark has the fleeting thought that Sooyoung and Jiwoo are probably going to be a couple very soon.

“Why did you give it to me anyway? The gifts?”

Donghyuck snorts. “Now I have enough faith in your dense muscle-brain to have at least figured _that_ out.”

“So it wasn’t an obligation gift.”

“It’s hilarious if you think ketchup is an obligation gift.” Donghyuck rolls his eyes. “No, Mark, I did not give anyone else a bottle of ketchup on Valentine’s Day.”

“So it was a romantic thing.”

“Was your mustard a romantic thing?”

“The mustard was a joke to respond to your ketchup.”

“Joke’s on you because I like mustard.” Donghyuck sticks his tongue out childishly, the faintest grin on his face. “But the chocolates were. You know. A romantic thing. Boring old chocolate, I know, but you’re a boring person in general, so I figured it would match well.”

“Oh my god, I hate you.”

“So the candy you gave me was an _I-hate-you_ gift.”

“No, I—”

“So it was a _romantic thing_.” Donghyuck mocks, looking way too smug for Mark’s liking.

Mark exhales loudly. “I guess. Maybe. I don’t know, just stop mocking me!”

Donghyuck lets out a giggle before playfully pinching Mark’s cheeks. “I’ll take that as you liking me back.”

Mark sighs in relief because while he probably knew it all along, _Donghyuck likes him back_ , and he can’t deny that he’s _elated_. Of course, he isn’t going to tell him that. “No, I hate you.”

“Oh no, two seconds into our blooming relationship and you already want a divorce.”

Mark sends Donghyuck a meaningful glare.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!


End file.
